Guest Model of HRM Assignment

Guest Model of HRM Assignment

Introduction

In Guest Model of HRM assignment we are going to learn about the different models of HRM, the comparison between the HRM and the IR / PM. Strategic HRM and its implications onthe line managers and employees. We will discuss about the change in the labour market and the models of work flexibility. We will learn the types of work flexibility. We will certainly find different work flexibility perspectives of employees and employers. This paper will enable us to know the impact of labour market in reference to the work flexibly. We will also learn about the discrimination and its types. The difference about the equal opportunities and the manage diversity. Later we will also learn about the performance management, employee welfare, health and safety rules and one topical issue on hr in the organization.

Task 1

P 1.1 Explain how the Guest’s model of HRM is adopted at Harrods.

Different Human Resource specialists from all over the world have come up with their different thoughts and perspectives about the human resource management in an organization. They also came up with the models, theories and the working principles of the human resource management (Bäckstrand 2008). It is very obvious that the basic motto of human resource management all over the globe is same and so, the basic structures of all the models and theories described by everyone were same. Some of the most famous human resource management are:

• Storey’s shift to HRM Model
• David Ulrich’s HR Model
• Guest Model of HRM
• Harvard Model of HRM, etc.

Guest model is also known as Guest model of hard – soft and loose – tight model dimensions. This model is based on the perception that the personnel management is different from the resource management (Barak 2013).Guest made this model on the observation of human resource management in two respects that is hard and soft or in other words tight and loose. The soft model is more helpful for the employee in regards. This model helps the organisation to develop the human resource management .

Harrods follow the Guest’s model hard – soft dimensions that increases employees management and trust inside the organisation. With the help of this model, Harrods is able to convince the best applicant and can develop their skills by providing the training programs. The guest’s model also enables Harrods in dividing the management and responsibility in the different layers so that the efficiency could be improved. The guest’s model also helps in following strategy of Harrods:

• Development of employees,
• Upgrade the working environment,
• Maintains internal communication between the employees and the higher management as well,
• Encourage its employees to help in decision making, etc.

The hard model helps in creating an environment that gives the employee a motivation or boost to complete the task or the work within the deadline. Harrods use this model for the increase in sales volume of the organisation.

P 1.2 Compare the differences between Storey’s definitions of HRM, Personnel and IR practices, by reflecting the HRM practices at Harrods.

Storey describes that the HRM is a strategic process that considers the employees the main assets of the organisation and also defines the hard and sort from of HRM. Hard HRM has more focus on increasing the ability of the employees can get the added value that can create the competitive advantage over the competitors whereas the soft HRM focuses on gaining the competitive advantage by the involvement of the employees in the management, their commitment to the organisation, interests and team work. On the other hand, Storey describes the personnel management in which the owner made the rule and the employee need to follow them and basically the management that is concerned with the employees’ law, recruitment and pay roll. Other differences between the storey definition of HRM and PM/IR are given below:

In the HRM practises of Harrods the Storey are implemented in such way that the management first works on identifying the physiological need of the employees and then provide the non financial reward to satisfied them such as promotion, involve them in the task or decision making etc. All these processes contribute in achieving the objective of the Harrods in the market.

P 1.3 Assess the implications for line managers and employees of developing a strategic approach to HRM at Harrods

Line managers in Harrods are responsible for developing the strategies of the HRM. Human resource management is the systematic approach through which an organization makes optimum utilization of the human resource (Bush & Middlewood 2013).It helps Harrods to create and keep up its working societies in the association and it additionally serves to make viable work space in the working environment. Hence, it is the responsibility of the line manager to ingrates the different approaches defined by the HRM of the organisation to strengthen the strategy for leadership, culture, recruitment for achieving the goal for the organisation. According to the MacLeod report 2009, the line managers are to highlight the benefits that the organisation can get by making the changes in their HRM practises.

Strategic Human Resource management helps an organization to understand where they are lacking and by what kind of training and development they can overcome that. In other words strategic human resource management is about strategizing the lack or deficiency that an organization is facing or will be facing in future and in comparison to that what solutions can be picked for the betterment of environment, work place, skills, talent of the organization as well as the employees (Hartog et al. 2013). Human resource management should be given an importance because it is there role and responsibility to create the working environment in an organization to work effectively as a team and as personnel as well, so that the organization can attain its objectives.

Various Implications for Line Managers and the Employees

• At the time of the job rotation or changing in the leadership style, there are various implications are generated for the line manager that may create conflicts for the organisation such as the behaviour of employee toward the new manager. In this case, the line managers of Harrods encourage the face to face communication between the employees and managers and share targets and goals to them.
• Improvement of the working atmosphere or the environment so that the employees can work more effectively, efficiently, and enthusiastically. This will help the organization and the employees as well to achieve their goal.
• More effective monitoring system should be adopted and practiced for the development of skills of employees and line managers.
• Appropriate training and development module should be adopted for the betterment of efficiency and effectiveness.
• The activities like decision making or problem solving sessions should be kept in frequent intervals for the involvement of the employees.
• Appraisal or rewarding method should be adopted for creating a healthy working environment and motivating the employees.
• The line managers and the employees should be given proper guidelines to work easily.
• Harrods should involve some team building or team outing session as well to improve the attitude of the employees towards the problem, team work, guest relations, etc.

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Task 2

P 2.1 Explain how a model of flexibility might be applied in practice. Relate this to the Harrods and reflect your argument with examples

Atkinson’s Core and Peripheral workforce Model:This model characterizes that stability between the core and peripheral workforce adjusts due to the unstructured utilization of peripheral labourers among the managers. In other words this models talks about the working atmosphere or environment of the labours inside Harrods and outside as well. It is very tough and important job of a manager to select the labour for Harrods. The HRM of Harrods develops the different strategies or model that describes the different flexible opportunities for the employees that also benefit the Harrods such as mobile working model. In this model, Harrods provides the different services of the broadband connection to the employees and the employees can take access internet and intranet at same time. It benefits the Harrods as the employee can complete the task in few working hours at a very low cost that also improves the life style and quality living for employees.

Core Workforce:This is the highly efficient, faithful and skill performers. They enjoy the luxury of job satisfaction and security as well.

Peripheral Workforce: This workforce is not the first choice of organizations. They are not skilled and efficient performers as core workforce (Karamessini & Rubery 2013).They complete the day to day important tasks but do not work on a bigger goal or aim.

Work flexibility is one of the most modern thought or the idea that many organization has adopted. Work flexibility involves some rules and regulations in the organizational structure regarding to time, policies, leave, etc. with and for its employees. The basic idea of this thought is to maintain the balance between the professional and the personal life. Work flexibility helps an organization:

• To increase the employee satisfaction
• To decrease the employee turnover ratio
• To attain the organizational goal
• To improve the working environment.
• To build a better team and personnel attitude, etc.

The employees also obey these rules and regulations because of the fact that this is going to help them.

Example –Harrods maintains the working flexibility at a very important stage like, it reschedules the meetings or the sessions if any personnel are missing it.

P 2.2 Discuss the types of flexibility which may be developed by the Harrods.

Work environment flexibility explains how quickly the employees can adjust to variances and changes in the demand and supply of the work market. The flexibility quality characterized by Atkinson is considered as the most suitable methodology. For maintaining balance in flexible in the workplace, these four methodologies can be helpful:

• Numerical Flexibility:It is the ability to modify the numbers of labours employed in a short notice in respect to the variances in the labour market.
• Temporal Flexibility: It refers to the variation in the system of working hours, in respect to meet the business demand and employee needs as well.
• Functional Flexibility: It refers to the variation of skills in the same labour. The employees can be multi-skilled and employers may need to provide training and development as well for the employees to be multi-skilled and multitasking.
• Wage Flexibility: Wage flexibility is where the wages offered are individualized rather than standardized.

The Harrods have adopted working flexibility in their organizational structure and they follow many types of the flexibility like as:

• Flexitime:Harrods provide the time flexibility to his employees. This helps Harrods to provide benefits to the employees, improve the working environment, etc. But Harrods should provide the time flexibility after the discussion with the employee. Harrods can improve this function by:
  • The entry and exit time punching of the employees should be given after the discussion of the employees.
  • Keeping the shifts with proper timing like 9 AM to 5 PM
  • Reimbursement or collection of leaves on working on holidays or leaves.

• Part Time Work or Reduced Working Time:Harrods can provide the employees the facility of working part time and it can be developed by:
• 35 hours working in a week, 7 hours every day, and 5 days a week.
• Segregation of time on the basis of Hours, Weeks or Employment.
• Work from Home:Harrods can give the employees the flexibility of completion of task or job from the home (Kehoe & Wright 2013). This will help the employee to complete the work and give the time to the family as well. And in the result the Harrods gets the work done as well as the employee satisfaction.
• Job Sharing:The Harrods can give the opportunity to the employees and the line managers to work together on the same task. This will help the Harrods in team building and positive working environment and also the task will get the perfection from line managers and execution from the employees.

P 2.3 Argue by assessing the use of flexible working practices from both the employee and the employer perspective of Harrods.

Flexible working methods have both advantages and disadvantages and that too in respect to both the employee as well as the employer. Harrods human resource should develop a flexible working model for the betterment of both the employee and the employer.

Advantages of Flexible Working from the employee perspective:

• It helps in balancing professional and personal life.
• It gives a chance for other source of income.
• Improvement in working environment.
• Improvement in employee behaviour and satisfaction.
• Decrease in job stress and employee turnover ratio.
• Increase in employee’s participation in decision making and other activities.
• Flexible working hours can complete the task whenever the employees feel for, etc.
• The working from the home for the employee reduces the cost of transportation, equipment and other expenditures.

Disadvantages of Flexible working from the employee perspective:Other than the above mentioned advantages there are still some disadvantages of the flexible working. Harrods management should be careful and try to overcome these points:

• The management may neglect the needs of the employees.
• Biasness or favouritism between the employees.
• Low income of the employee.
• Employees harassed by the employer.

Advantages of Flexible Working from the employer perspective:

• Increased employee satisfaction and morale and the commitment towards the goal.
• Increased employee motivation and participation.
• Increased management skill.
• Reduced business cost.
• Optimum utilization of the employees and their skills and talent.
• Better image as an employer in the market.
• Harrods is benefited with the employee who wants to working in their free time as it increases the cost of the production and for Harrods there is no need to spend the money on the insurance, safety issue, pensions and retirement etc. for employees.

Disadvantages of the Flexible working from the employer perspective:

• Decrease in productivity, responsibility and efficiency from the employees.
• Increase in exploitation of employees.
• Difficulties in controlling and coordinating the achievement of work.
• Increase in employee’s stubbornness in new rules and regulations.
• Difficult to analyse the appraisal of employee.

P 2.4 Discuss the impact that changes in the labour market have had on flexible working practices at Harrods

With the changes in the industries and recruiting and selection style of industries, there is a continuous change in the labour market as well around all over the globe (Alcázar et al. 2013). The skilled labours, labours cost, accessibility of the labour, demand and supply of labours are some of the factors of change in the labour market.

Labour Market Changes and Flexibility: European Union’s rules and regulations have supported the flexibility in the working practices at Harrods. EU has allowed free movement of labour across the borders of the countries which are the members of EU. Because of this, Harrods is able to fulfil the labour requirement from other countries. Free movement of labour because of this resulted in the benefit of the recipient country; UK in this case and the organisations like Harrods. Relative wage flexibility is also promoted by the changes in the labour market. The wages of the labour is decided according to the industry the labour is working at. In case of Harrods, the availability of skilled resources on low wages in the hospitality industry has promoted relative wage flexibility. Organisations like Harrods which emphasis a lot on the quality of the products and services has put some restrictions on the employee entry in the organisation. Strict recruitment and selection policies has hindered the entry of labour in the organisation and reduced the flexibility.

Some other factors affecting the labour market of UK influence the flexible work style of Harrods in these ways:

De-Industrialization: Since the early 80’s the UK is facing the issue of closing down of manufacturing industries which has indirectly effected the flexible working style like as:

• The supply of working full time labours of manufacturing industries was more than the demand.
• Unemployment structure came up with the drastic changes.
• The trade unions that guarantee to provide the jobs were diminishing.

Diversity in Organizational Framework: Due to flexible work style the organizational structure of Harrods have been changed a lot, like as:

• The number of employees working part time changed.
• The number of employees working full time changed.
• The number of employees working for short term contracts changed.

Relative inflation in Service Industry: Because of decrease of labour requirements in manufacturing industry there was a relative increase in service industry. This factor effected the Harrods in a way that:

• The number of women employees in Harrods increased.
• Migrated labours from other industries needed training & development.
• The trade unions and their influence in the organization started diminishing.

Diversity in skills available and required in market: Due to de-industrialization there was a wide range of diversity in the labour market and as a Result Harrods has to train & develop the labours according to the requirements.

Open Labour Market flexibility: Due to the excessive competition between the organizations in the same industry. Harrods should provide the work flexibility at a higher level than rivals this would effect:

• Decrease in employee turnover ratio.
• Increase in employee satisfaction and morale.

Task 3

P 3.1 Explain the forms of discrimination that can take place with special reference to Harrods

Employees and labours face the discrimination of different kind, aroused due to the reason of age, sex, race, colour, cast, and qualifications, etc. It’s the vital responsibility of the HRM to not to let these kind of atmosphere get developed in the organization otherwise it may lead to disharmony, rivalry, violations, chaos, etc. in the organization and that will affect the employees behaviour and satisfaction resulting in creating hurdles in achieving the objectives and goals of the company. Discrimination arises on the basis of:

• Age: Employees may be discriminated on the basis of the age for the appraisal, promotion or some other benefit. HRM and its managers should not let the age be a matter of discrimination; they should provide equal opportunities to each and every staff.
• Sex: In some organizations or the in some work profiles male employees are dominated upon the female employees and vice-versa. HRM and its managers should be very keen in observing the environment and careful to not let sex discrimination getting acquainted in their organizations, they should provide equal opportunities, responsibilities and motivation to all the staff.
• Background: Employees face discrimination because of family or some institutional background. People with lower or higher education or the family legacy gets more attention than the others. Mangers of HRM should be very attentive because this kind of discrimination can create chaos or revolt inside the organizations.
• Disability: Organizations discriminate the candidates with disability at the time of recruitment. Managers should never discriminate the candidates upon the abilities of them. They should provide an opportunity before and if the candidates are not able to meet the requirement than they should think of providing training before rejecting the candidate.
• Religion: Employees of different religions and beliefs face discriminations at different levels. People coming up from minority religion or with different beliefs face discriminations like not getting leaves on their festivals and all. The managers should come up with some ideas to overcome these discriminations.

P 3.2 Discuss the practical implications of equal opportunities legislation practiced in Harrods

For the sense or feel of equality among the staff the organization should treat all the employees equally and establish equal opportunity policy. The right of equal treatment is deliberated as Universal Human Right. Organizations are bound to provide a working atmosphere or the environment where the employees can work, without discriminating on the basis of sex, age, background, religion, etc. Equal opportunity legislation has helped the employees by increased job security. Because of the equal opportunity legislation, the employees cannot be sacked because of any kind of discrimination and their employment in the organisations cannot be judged on the basis of any kind of discrimination. Unfair terminations of the employees are reduced by the equal opportunity legislation. Because of the equal opportunity legislations, the employees are protected at Harrods. Although, most of the people think that equal opportunity legislation only protects the interests of the employees, yet there are some points in equal opportunity legislation which also protects Harrods as an employer. Now only the employees who work hard and think of the organisation before themselves are receiving the appreciation and recognition at Harrods

In this manner, equal opportunity legislation creates a fair competition environment at Harrods which finally results in the benefit of the organisation. There is another side of equal opportunity legislation which states that there is no way of making sure that equal opportunity legislation will result in the better outcome. The implementation of the equal procedures at Harrods does not guarantee that employees would perform better if they are given equal opportunity. There are many other factors which affect the outcome of the employees’ work.

P 3.3 Compare the approaches adapted by Harrods to managing equal opportunities and managing diversity.

One of the major differences between managing equal opportunities and managing diversity is the reason and the force or the specific needs of change. Equal opportunity is driven because of the external factors like Government legislature, social bodies, trade unions, human and employee rights, etc. whereas managing diversity is driven because of the internal factors like organizational structure, diversified environment of organization, business needs, etc.

At Harrods, management does not only concentrate on the employees who come from minority but treat the employees as individuals and tries to bring the best of them while working at Harrods. There are employees at Harrods who are different from each other but this difference is used by Harrods for the benefit of the organisation instead of having problem with diversity. The difference among the individuals at Harrods is recognised and they are assigned work accordingly so that they can contribute to the organisational goals and objectives. In an organisation like Harrods, customers come from different cultures and backgrounds. Diverse workforce at Harrods is utilised to make sure that the customers do not feel alienated and receive full cooperation from the employees. In this manner, diversity and equal opportunity improves customer relationship at Harrods.

Another difference between the equal opportunity and managing diversity is their goal or objective. Equal opportunity works for the objective of social justice, human rights, etc. whereas managing diversity works for the objective of that every employee is a different individual with different needs and requirements, treating every employee individually, etc. As a conclusion of the difference between the equal opportunity and managing diversity is that they both play important and vital roles at their positions and it is important and clever for an organization to use these methodologies.

Task 4

P 4.1 Research, Compare and comment on different methods of performance management adopted by Harrods

To improve the results and practice of the employees working in the organization, Organizations needs to change the working style or the methods of the performance (Naff, Riccucci & Freyss 2013). 

Harrods believe that every employee has needs and if these needs of the employees are satisfied, their performance could be improved. Because of this, Harrods use job rotation, job enrichment and nurturing the talent of the employees which result in the enhanced performance. Harrods believe in the employee engagement and employees feel themselves a part of the process which results in the benefit of the company. This feeling of the employees makes them valuable and they perform even better in the coming time.

• MBO: In this type of evaluation the performance is judged with the comparison between the actual performance and the pre-described performance and with the results the new described goals and achievements are set for the employee to develop and perform much better. At Harrods, employees are given specific objectives which they need to fulfil as individuals. Although, there are also team objectives but individual objectives help the employees in achieving the self actualisation. Harrods use face to face interaction between the employee and his manager to set the targets and give advice to the employee by the manager. This kind of mentoring approach from the line managers at Harrods also keep the managers informed about the performance of the employee.
• Assessment Centres: Managers are asked to join the assessment centres and to participate in work related exercises and then the performance is judged by the trainers. The trainers put some virtual work scenarios and situations where the employee has to perform and the trainers evaluate the performance in the respect of leadership, creative, innovative, team work, communication skills, problem solving, aptitude, tolerance, etc. qualities of the employees. This is the most effective and easy and widely used evaluation process in comparisons to the other processes.

P 4.2 Research and assess the approaches to the practice of managing employee welfare in Harrods.

Worker welfare management is the activities done by the organization to give more value to the lives of the employee. The organization should come up with some cultural events, medical facilities, training and development sessions, team building sessions, assistances, services, etc. to maintain the employees in the organization for a long time (Shen & Liu 2003).

• Managing employee welfare and safety: Harrods has appointed a safety officer whose sole responsibility is to make sure that employee stay safe while working at Harrods. Possible safety related problems are analysed by the safety officer on the recommendation of the line managers at Harrods. Safety officer at Harrods meets the line managers in the different departments regularly to discuss the hazard management procedures in their respective departments. Employees are also trained in the equipment handling and educated about the use of the equipments differently as needed by the situation.
• Managing employee welfare and health: When it comes to the health of the employees, Harrods pay attention to physical as well as mental health of the employees. Preventive measures are taken by the management to minimise the accidents at work place. Mental health of the employees at Harrods is maintained by the psychological assessment of the employees. Employee survey is used for this purpose. The needs of the employees are discussed and appropriate steps are taken to make sure that these needs of the employees are satisfied. Worker welfare provided must be analysed in regular interval of times to understand the expenses incurred as well as the paybacks received from the employees (Storey & Holti 2013).

P 4.3 Discuss the implications of health and safety legislation on human resources practices with special reference to Harrods.

Health and safety rules control the health and safety measures of the organization. It is mandatory for every organization to follow the health and safety rules. It is the duty of organization, supervisors, managers and even the employees to stay aware and abide by the Health and Safety rules and regulations. Firm may neglect to draw in the competent and capable staffs and caught in aggressive damage (Thompson et al. 2013).  

Harrods has adopted health and safety legislation which is implemented by HRM in the company. Safety programmes does not only include the existing employees but also include the newly joined employees. Safety programmes starts even before the recruitment at Harrods. Because of health and safety legislation implementation at Harrods, accidents at the work place are drastically reduced. Line managers at Harrods act as mentors and and make sure that every employee in their team is aware of the precautions which he has to follow during work.

Along these lines, to raise brand picture and estimation of the organization to the imminent work business, accomplish practical workforces and upsurge productivity a firm ought to screen and keep health and safety principles. These rules are aimed to prevent the followings:

• Injuries
• Workplace accidents
• Outline the consequences of breach
• Outline the consequences of every employee / employer.

According to the legislation the employer is needed to provide the following:

• Protect the health and safety of the employees in work place
• Provide appropriate training for the usage of dangerous equipment’s or machines.
• Informing the employees of the danger in the work place and the need for healthy living.

According to the legislation the employee has the right to:

• To deny to work under unsafe conditions.
• To deny the use of inappropriate tools.
• Must have proper training for the task before involvement.

P 4.4 Evaluate the impact of one topical issue on human resources practices reflected in the case study and additional research of Harrods.

At Harrods, employees are considered part of the organisation and they are included in the decision making process. When employees participate in the decision making process, they feel motivated and engaged in the growth of the company. Harrods has an engaged work force and managers delegate the responsibilities to the employees and the decision of the process to meet the responsibility is left to the employees. Increased responsibility of the employees at Harrods help in fulfilling their self esteem and self actualisation needs which make them mentally strong. Employees are involved in the decision making process through the surveys where employees’ view on a specific topic is gathered and the decision is taken accordingly. Employees at Harrods are allowed to give their feedback on the processes adopted at the work place. The voice of the employees makes lot of difference in the working of Harrods.

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Conclusion

So after experiencing and preparing these papers I come to the conclusion that some of the famous HRM models like the Guest model of hard-soft and loose-tight model dimensions and Storey’s shift to HRM model are not very different from each other. Also the HRM and IR / PM are having very minute basic and fundamental changes in them. We also came to know about the strategic HRM and their implications on the line managers and employees. Other than to this we came to know about the models of work flexibility and its importance with its different kinds and the advantages and disadvantages of the work flexibility with employee as well as the employer point of view. We also came to know about the discriminations and its types. Also we understood about the equal opportunity its importance and difference with the managerial diversity and its importance as well. And lately we learned about the performance management, employee welfare, health and safety and one topical issue on hr in the organization.

References

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